


Retail Therapy

by moonrunes



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: F/M, Gen, just two old friends catching up on what happened between like...utopia and krakoa, the romance is implied but you can pretty much read it any way you want to, venting and hard topics on both ends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:47:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22069531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonrunes/pseuds/moonrunes
Summary: Jimmy takes Terry shopping in the wake of Krakoa's creation, and for the first time in a very long time, they get to talk about the past. A gift in the Winter Gift Exchange for Duck_Life -- happy New Year's!!
Relationships: Theresa Cassidy & James Proudstar, Theresa Cassidy/James Proudstar
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8
Collections: X-Men Server Winter Gift X-Change





	Retail Therapy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Duck_Life](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/gifts).



“Thank you again for this, Jimmy.” Terry shot him a sparkling smile over her shoulder. “If I’d had known that the island was a permanent sort of deal, I’d have packed a little more, you know?”

“Mhm.”

“‘Cause, you know, it’s not like the last few tries have lasted too long.” She frowned at a ruffled dress and, after a moment of consideration, threw it across her arm with the rest of her quickly-growing pile of ‘things to try on.’ 

“Yeah. Hey, do you want me to hold some of that for you?”

“Would you? Thank you!”

The clothes didn’t weigh as much as Jimmy thought they would -- he took them and dutifully followed her to the next rack, laughing quietly to himself as she inspected a row of cardigans with a raised eyebrow. “So, Terry, what’ve you been up to?”

 _What happened at X-Factor Investigations,_ he meant. _What happened to make you drop completely off the radar until now, until Krakoa?_

All emotion faded from her face, and she turned away, feigning interest in a rack of puce skirts, and Jimmy internally cringed. _Way to go, Proudstar._

“Well, a lot of stuff happened,” she said, her voice carefully neutral. “Bad stuff, good stuff. Such is life, I suppose.”

“What about the good stuff?” he asked gently, and she visibly relaxed, though the sunshine didn’t come back to her face.

“I worked X-Factor for a little while -- that was interesting, at least. You know Monet St. Croix?”

“I think so -- M, right? Sam’s little sister’s friend? I’ve seen her around on the island a few times.”

“Mhm. Can’t say I adore her attitude, but she knows how to get the work done and she’s nice, in her own way.”

“Those are good traits to have.”

“Yup.” She drifted across the aisle and into the clearance section, leafing through crowded hangers with a frown. “None of this is sorted correctly. Oh, I was also pregnant.” 

“What?!” Jimmy squeezed between the too-close racks and stared at her with wide eyes, questions on the tip of his tongue -- but he bit them back as he noticed how she avoided his eyes, how she turned her face away from his shock.

“Pregnant. Jamie’s, we thought. Jamie tried to hold him seconds after he was born, but absorbed him, ‘cause the baby’d been a dupe.” Her voice cracked and her hand clenched, pulling a shirt off a hanger and onto the floor. “Oh -- damn-”

“I got it.”

“Oh. Thank you.” She twisted her hands together as Jimmy repositioned the shirt, the rest of her selections draped over a nearby rack until he reclaimed them. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. Are you, you know, doing okay?”

Terry sighed and pulled a hand through long red hair. “I don’t know, Jimmy. I just…”

She trailed off and Jimmy silently willed her to keep talking, to tell him the truth.

She coughed. “It’s strange, having everyone back. People we haven’t seen in years. I…”

A moment of silence, unnoticed by any other shoppers, cheerful-sounding music playing in the background. 

“I didn’t think he was ever actually dead,” she said finally. “My father, I mean. All these X-Men, all those times everyone came back to life...and my own father was gone but now, everyone’s back.”

Jimmy felt a sharp pang in his chest, a reminder that ‘all these X-Men’ didn’t include John, never seemed to include John, but the grief was an old friend by now and so he let it sit in his mind for a second before it dissipated. 

“I guess I never thought...I don’t know.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Anyways. A bit after that I met a woman called the Morrigan.”

“The Morrigan?”

 _The goddess from Irish mythology?_ he wanted to ask (at the risk of revealing his brief phase of being obsessed with mythology when he’d been twelve), but Terry answered before he could.

“Like the goddess from Irish mythology. She didn’t want to be the Morrigan anymore, so I was. And…”

She shrugged, meandering into another section and feeling the material of a coat. “That’s where I’ve been for the past little bit. What about you, Jimmy?”

Jimmy shrugged noncommittally, examining a white shirt on the rack that was almost his size, and behind him, he practically heard Terry’s eyebrows rise. 

“I, uh, I heard about Selene. I’m so sorry you had to go through that again, Jimmy-”

He shrugged again. “‘S okay -- really. It all turned out okay.”

“Hmm. Is it really okay?”

“Yes, sort of. John -- he deserved more than to be used as her pawn, but I think I gave him the death he wanted.” Jimmy smiled bitterly. “Other than Selene, though, to answer your question, nothing much. Lotta X-Force, lotta Weapon X, met the new kid -- the new Hulk, do you know him?”

“I heard about him.”

“His heart’s in the right place, you know? Good kid.”

“How was X-Force, though?” Terry scooted closer to his side, leaning against the arm not currently burdened with clothes, and Jimmy snorted. 

“Not enough like the old days for me.”

She laughed, her voice rough around the edges from old wounds, old scars, but it still made Jimmy smile. “What, you mean getting blown up every so often and -- and running around the desert getting into fights with whoever Cable pointed us towards?”

“Yeah.” Jimmy raised his eyebrows at her. “Can you believe that I kind of miss it?”

“Honestly? I believe it. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss it too.” He made a noise of surprise and she bumped his ribs with her elbow, smiling half-indignantly. “Don’t sound so surprised.”

“Do you miss X-Force and the corresponding government-fighting more than you miss being a goddess, though?”

Terry rolled her eyes, even as they walked to the next section. “ _God_ , yes. The girl I met a few months back seemed more suited to the role than I ever was.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. Cara was her name, I think -- pretty name, sweet girl. Tall, red hair curlier than mine, lovely deep voice, both singing and speaking.”

“Is she why you’re not still the Morrigan? Does that mean you’ll be on Krakoa for good?”

“For as long as the island’s around,” Terry affirmed. “Cara, dear girl that she is, nearly started crying when I offered -- something about not believing she was enough? But that’s false, always has been, for anyone.” She shrugged nonchalantly, as if having such inherent faith in the value of humanity was no big deal, and Jimmy marveled at her, unbroken still. “But, anyways, do you really miss X-Force?”

“Yes? And no.” Terry slipped her hand into Jimmy’s and pulled him across the aisle again, and he squeezed her hand gently, mindful of his enhanced strength even as he thought about the question. “I don’t miss the fighting and the anger and the fear, you know.”

“Mhm.”

“But I miss the friendship, the camadiere, the team part. You know, the family part.”

Terry leaned into Jimmy again, the two of them insulated in their little bubble against the world. “I know what you’re saying -- I miss it too. Missed you.”

Jimmy laughed, quieter this time. “Yeah. Yeah, I missed you too.”


End file.
